Typhoon Saudel brings torrential rain, flooding to China's coastal areas

Sept 4 — China's southern coastal provinces of Fujian and Guangdong braced for further torrential rain on ​Friday, after severe downpours linked to Typhoon Saudel triggered flooding in urban and rural areas, swamping vehicles and causing a three-storey brick building to ‌collapse.

In Fujian's city of Fuding, known for its tea plantations and lush greenery, firefighters waded through waist-deep floodwaters ⁠to carry elderly people to safety, ​social media footage verified by Reuters ⁠showed.

In nearby Jinxi village, a tea-growing community surrounded by mountains, raging floodwaters inundated ‌residential buildings and brought ‌down a three-storey house, social media footage verified by Reuters showed.

Local authorities ⁠have shut schools, suspended public transport and ⁠enforced emergency flood protocols across multiple coastal areas.

Saudel made its third landfall along the coast of Fujian on Thursday morning after intensifying again over the South China Sea.

It is the seventh typhoon to hit China this year and the third to strike the city of Yuhuan in eastern Zhejiang in less than ‌two months. The meteorological sequence is extremely rare, ​according to China's Meteorological Administration, and one that experts say is closely linked to El Niño.

During an El Niño year, the Western Pacific subtropical high is exceptionally strong and positioned further north, guiding typhoons along a northwest trajectory directly toward China's eastern coast. The United Nations warned on Thursday that the El Niño was set to intensify further into 2027 and could be the strongest ​ever, raising the risk of prolonged extreme weather.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been relocated ‌across Zhejiang and ‌nearby provinces ⁠since late August, including more than 83,000 residents evacuated in Fujian alone as Saudel tracked inland and soaked surrounding areas.

Saudel follows Typhoon Narra, which dumped heavy rain across Guangxi, Hainan and Guangdong provinces late last month.

Torrential downpours pose a high risk for ‌secondary disasters such as ​landslides, as recent rains have already pushed rivers ‌over warning thresholds and ⁠inundated low-lying communities, ​the Ministry of Natural Resources warned.

(Reporting by Farah Master and the Beijing newsroom; Editing by ​Kate Mayberry)

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